Bidentate ligands have recently been shown to be very effective for the preparation of organometallic catalysts, such as for example, low pressure hydroformylation catalysts wherein the bidentate ligands are coordinated with rhodium. While a variety of bidentate ligands are useful for such chemical conversions as hydroformylation, their synthesis is often difficult, involving numerous reaction steps, one or more of which give low product yields. The net result is that the target bidentate ligands are obtained in low overall yields and are expensive to prepare.
In order for bidentate ligands such as: ##STR3## to come into more widespread use, efficient means for the preparation of such bidentate ligands will need to be developed.